The Z Virus
by EclecticMonki
Summary: After his parents reject him, Danny moves in with Jazz and Dani. when a mysterious virus begins to spread, what is his small broken family to do? Gore in the first chapter, possibly more later. Redemption for Vlad. No pairings yet
1. Chapter 1

It was a perfectly normal week. In retrospect, that should have tipped him off. The calm before the storm.

It wouldn't have mattered anyway.

His parents had kicked him out when he was sixteen. He told them about his powers on his fifteenth birthday and they tried to accept him, they really did, but a lifetime of fear and hatred is hard to get over.

Jazz helped him, she found out a few months after the accident. She let him move in with her in her apartment near Harvard.

One thing that really threw Danny for a loop was the assistance of the man he considered an enemy. Vlad had come to Danny soon after he moved in with Jazz. Danny could still remember the conversation.

"Daniel, I know we aren't on the best of terms, but I want you to know my offer is still standing, if a bit different. I want to help you, train you in everything ghost, make sure you and Jasmine live comfortably."

Danny sighed. "You must be happy, Vlad. What you said came true. They didn't accept me, at least not fully. Now I don't need to renounce my dad, he did that for me."

Vlad put a comforting hand on the boy's shoulder. "Despite everything I said, I never wanted them to prove me right. I do care about you, Daniel."

Danny let his tears fall for the first time since he left home. He let the older halfa hold him while he cried. When he had calmed down enough to speak, he looked at the man's face. "I want to take you up on that training offer, but I can't leave Jazz."

Vlad nodded and walked with Danny back to the apartment.

Vlad had offered to pay for anything they might need. He bought a mansion near the school and invited them both to live with him.

Danny convinced Jazz to go with, not that it was too hard. She wanted to live in his mansion as much as he did.

That's when the first cases started. The first few patients were down near the Mexican border, people in hospitals complaining of chills and loss of self control. The doctors couldn't explain it.

The reports slowly spread north. No one could figure it out and none of the patients were getting better.

One day Dani came home with a story that set Danny's nerves on end.

"I was in class and my friend Connor started saying he was cold. I thought he was complaining for no reason, but then he started shivering and his lips were turning blue!" She explained.

"Ms. Summers tried to get him to go to the nurse. That's when he started trying to bite her. I grabbed him in that one move you told me about, where I lock my hands around his arms and behind his head, he calmed down a bit when he saw it was me, so I brought him to the nurse. Anyone else that went near him got growled at.

Danny had joked at the time, saying he must have had a crush on her. They let the subject drop.

Danny should have paid more attention.

Jazz came home with a similar story to Dani's. A student got sick and tried to attack anyone who got too close. Using her knowledge of martial arts and self defense, Jazz, along with the teacher, was able to restrain the student and get them to the hospital.

The student had been able to bite the teacher and a few students before they managed to subdue them.

These should have been warnings to Danny, but something just wouldn't let him think about them too long.

And it's not like he could have done anything.

That day was quiet. School had been canceled for the halfa children because of all the students in the hospital with this strange virus. The schools didn't want to risk making it spread faster.

Danny walked to Jazz's school to wait for her class to end. A few people looked at him funny as they passed, confused as to why a kid was walking around Harvard.

"Hey Danny. No class today?" Jazz called when she saw her little brother.

"Yeah, everyone's freaked out about this new virus." They started walking back to the mansion. Danny listened as she talked about her classes. She was in some kind of statistics in psychology class.

They were stopped by what sounded like screaming. Danny took off running without a second thought. He heard Jazz running behind him.

They ended up in front of the hospital. Danny saw people running from the building, nurses were pushing wheelchairs and a few of those baby crib things.

The halfa ran up to the nearest person, a scared nurse holding a crying baby.

"What happened?"

He looked up at the boy. "One of the virus patients, his vitals just stopped. We thought he was dead. Then he stood up and started walking out of the room. We let him." The nurse took a shuddering breath. Danny waited patiently.

"The man walked right up to one of the doctors and he-he..." A tear spilled from his eye. "He bit into the doctor's throat. She dropped to the ground. She was dead then she wasn't and she started walking at people too. Then I pulled the fire alarm."

The man was shaking and holding the baby to his chest. Danny looked at Jazz. "Get people out. Tell them to get home to safety."

She gave him a confused glance then nodded and did what she was told. Danny ran up to the building. One of the security guards tried to stop him but he just dodged around their arms.

He smiled, glad Vlad had him train his human body along with his ghost one.

The halls were eerily quiet. Danny walked around the building, using his enhanced hearing to try to find the patient. There were no sounds. Everything was dead silent.

Danny tried not to think about the irony of that sentence.

He was halfway through the first floor when he heard a scream from upstairs. He let the familiar white rings pass over his body and took off through the ceiling up to the third floor.

Phantom looked around and saw a trail of blood on the floor. He followed it cautiously and looked into the nursery.

He almost threw up, good thing ghostly anatomy wasn't able to.

There were dead infants scattered around the room. They were all bleeding and looked broken. He was so distracted by the horrible sight that he almost didn't notice the man sitting in the corner.

Danny lit his hands green and glared at him.

The man didn't even turn around. Danny inched his way around the man and looked at what he was doing.

That lead to almost barf number two.

The man was crouching over the bloody body of a woman, but that wasn't the horrifying part. He was holding a fetus and eating it like an apple.

Danny blasted the creature (he could no longer call it a man) in the side of the head.

It fell on its side.

He put an ectoplasmic bubble around the creature and glared at it.

"What are you?" Danny watched as it stood up and looked around confused.

He was so focused on the thing that he didn't notice the woman stand up.

The woman stood behind him and Danny flinched when he felt her hand brush his arm.

He spun around and stared in horror at her. She watched him with blank eyes. He froze when she leaned forward.

Danny charged an ecto blast in his hand and prepared to shoot, but she didn't attack.

"Did you just sniff me?" Danny yelled in shock. He floated back a bit, forgetting about the bubble holding the male.

The bubble faded and the male charged at the halfa. Danny put up his arms for protection but the creature stumbled past.

Danny watched as it sniffed the female and they both started walking away.

I say walking, I mean more like limping.

Danny flew through the wall and into an empty room. He collapsed on the floor.

He pulled out his phone and dialed Jazz. She answered on the third ring.

"Danny? What's going on in there?"

"Get out of here. Go home, stay with Vlad and Danielle." Danny said, secretly glad his voice didn't sound as shaky as he felt.

"What? What about you? What's going on?" She tried again.

"I'll explain when I get home. Just go!"

There was silence for a minute, probably Jazz weighing her options. "Ok, but hurry home little brother, and be careful."

Danny sighed in relief and thanked Jazz before hanging up. He got to his feet and tried to ignore his shaky feet.

He needed to get out of there. He knew what these creatures were, he, Tucker, and Sam had watched enough movies to recognize one.

That didn't answer why they didn't attack, but Danny wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth.

"I came in as Fenton. If I go out as Phantom, people will be suspicious." Danny let himself change back to human.

He walked carefully through the halls, trying to find the front door. The building seemed darker than before. Danny glanced out a nearby window and saw that the sun was almost down. He sighed.

Danny made it to the front door without seeing the creatures again, but the whole building was starting to smell. He didn't want to think about the reason why.

When he saw the door, Danny took off running.

"Kid!" The same security guard from earlier yelled at him.

"Get everyone away from here! It's not safe!" Danny shouted so anyone nearby would hear.

Some civilians started moving back. Someone grabbed Danny's arm.

"You're coming with me, kid." The man glared at Danny.

Danny matched his glare. "Not until all these people are out of here." He said firmly.

The man looked at him with tired, annoyed eyes. Danny didn't back down.

"You don't have a choice in the matter, kid. You ran into a quarantine unprotected. We need to test you for the virus."

Danny understood the man's motives, but that didn't mean he would do what he was told.

"I'm fine, but there are two infected patients in there that were eating infants!" Danny glared at the man, hoping his eyes looked honest.

One of the people behind the guard started laughing, thinking Danny was crazy.

The guard looked at Danny with an expression that made it seem like he wanted to do the same.

Danny was about to start yelling when a woman in the crowd screamed.

She was pointing to the glass doors behind Danny. Everyone turned to look and saw the dead woman from inside. Danny hadn't been able to get a good look at her before, but now, with some distance between them, Danny could see how truly horrifying she was.

Her stomach had been ripped open so the other creature could eat her fetus, leaving a nice door for the rest of her insides to fall out.

This time Danny nearly did barf.

The security guards quickly got to work getting people away from the building.

One man tried pulling Danny, but the halfa pushed him away and helped evacuate the civilians.

Danny helped a woman who had four children. He picked up the two middle children and let the oldest climb on his back. The woman lead the way to her house, holding her baby to her chest.

"Just stay inside and stay with your kids." Danny said, letting the children climb down when they got to her house.

"What about you?" The youngest boy asked.

Danny looked down and felt a small pang of sadness. This boy looked like Tucker, back when they were little. How long has it been since they last talked? "I have to go. You should be safe here." He smiled at the boy.

"Are you sure?" The mother asked. "You're more than welcome to stay here until this is over."

Danny smiled at her offer. "Thanks, that's extremely generous of you, but no. I need to get home and make sure my sisters are safe."

"But that was a-"

"I know what it was. I still need to go." He smiled and let himself out.

When he was safely hidden behind a brick fence, Danny changed back into Phantom and started flying.

On the flight home, he thought about calling Sam and Tucker, just to make sure they're ok.

Almost home anyway. He decided to call when he had a plan.

He flew through the wall and into the living room. He didn't stop until he saw Jazz sitting and talking with Dani.

"Danny!" Dani jumped up and ran to the older halfa. Even though Dani is technically Danny's clone, they consider each other brother and sister.

"What happened, little brother? You sounded scared." Jazz looked at him with concern.

Danny looked between them and answered with one word. "Zombies."


	2. Chapter 2

"Zombies?!"

Danny nodded at his sisters. "Where's Vlad? I should tell him at the same time I tell you."

Jazz stood up. "He's in his lab. I'll go get him."

She left the room and Danny took the chance to let himself calm down.

"Was it like Cyber Zombie Commando?"

Danny looked up. Dani was staring at him. "Little less cyber, little more zombie, but kinda."

Dani kept staring at him, waiting for him to elaborate. He stayed quiet.

"Daniel, Jasmine says you had an eventful evening." Vlad said as he and Jazz walked into the room.

Danny nodded. "That virus, the one that makes people aggressive, I think I just saw the end game."

Vlad and Jazz sat down with Dani and listened to Danny's story.

When he was done, Jazz looked horrified, Dani looked disgusted, and Vlad looked like he was coming up with a plan.

"I'll be back." Vlad stood up and left the three teens alone.

Dani and Jazz both went back to staring at Danny.

"So, what do we do?" Jazz asked.

Danny shook his head. "I don't know. I was hoping you guys would help me come up with a plan."

"I don't know what we can do. We only know how to fight ghosts and the occasional lunatic human. To fight zombies we'd have to go for kill shots." Jazz said thoughtfully.

Dani and Danny shuddered. "I don't think either of us are capable of that." Dani explained.

Jazz nodded. She was just about to say something when the three heard a crash from Vlad's lab.

They stared at the door as Vlad slammed it open.

When he saw the children staring at him, he took a deep breath to compose himself. "Sorry for my outburst."

"What was it about?" Danny asked, glad to have the attention off himself.

"I had a sample of tissue from one of the patients suffering from this virus. I acquired it some time ago in case I needed to study it to find a cure, say if one of you three caught it."

"So why the tantrum?" Dani asked.

"It rotted. My guess is it died the same time the patient did. I'll need a live subject." Vlad started pacing.

"Would you even be able to contain a live zombie?" Jazz couldn't help the curiosity bleeding into her voice.

"That would be an oxymoron, but of course. I wouldn't suggest bringing one of those creatures into my home unless I was sure it couldn't attack us." He sounded almost offended.

"How do you plan on catching one?" Danny asked.

Vlad looked from Jazz to Danny. "I'm sure it won't be too hard. According to your story they move and think slowly. I need to make a few small adjustments to my containment field, but it should be ready whenever we get the chance."

Danny nodded but he wasn't happy with the knowledge that the people he cares about most were going to be near one of those creatures.

"What adjustments do you need to make?" Jazz spoke up.

Vlad looked at the notes in his hand that the teens hadn't noticed before. "I would like to make it portable. We live in a place that is very densely populated. All theories and legends and myths about surviving zombies say to go somewhere secluded.

"My cabin in Colorado is the perfect solution. It's miles away from any living beings and it has everything we may need."

Dani looked at her father. "Why not catch a zombie when we're there instead of bringing one from here?"

"That may be our only option if I can not make the field transportable. But if the chance arises to study one of these creatures without putting yourselves in too much danger, take it." And with that Vlad went back down to his lab.

"I don't want to be anywhere near those things until we know more about them." Jazz looked at her brother.

"And I don't want you, either of you, near them at all." He said with a pointed look between the two girls.

Dani rolled her eyes. "I can take care of myself. If you got to fight them, why can't I?"

Danny mimicked her eye roll. "Because you're just barely over two years old. You may look like a thirteen year old, but you're not."

Jazz listened to the halfas bicker. She was just getting ready to break up the argument when someone knocked on the door.

"You two, go human. Someone's at the door." She warned her siblings. They did what she said, letting the rings of light change their white hair and green eyes to black and icy blue. They didn't let go of their argument, that has now moved on to who's smarter.

Jazz opened the door. She stared in shock at who was there.

Danny picked up on his sister's surprise and looked over to the door. Dani did the same.

"Valerie?"

"Valerie!"

Both halfas ran over to the door.

Valerie was standing on the front step, wearing her black and red battle suit. She looked exhausted.

Danny was the first to speak. "What are you doing here?"

"Can I come in and sit down?" She asked, her voice shaky and tired.

Jazz elbowed Danny in the side. "Of course you can, Valerie. Follow me." Jazz lead the Red Huntress to the living room and helped her lower herself into a chair.

"Dani, go get Val some water." Danny ordered. Dani listened without question.

"What happened to you?" He asked when Dani left.

"Zombies. Are they not here yet?"

Jazz and Danny shared a look. "They only just started changing today."

Dani ran back in with water. Valerie took it with a smile and chugged half the bottle.

"What's going on in Amity Park?" Danny asked, fear for his friends creeping into his mind.

"It started at the hospital. We had fourteen reported cases of the virus." She paused and took a shuddering breath. "One of them was my dad."

Jazz put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Continue when you're ready." Valerie smiled up at her.

It took two minutes of calming breaths before she could talk again. "He and the others started dying early this morning. I got a call from Dad's doctor saying he died. In the middle of the call, my dad stood up and bit the doctor. I heard the doctor screaming.

"That's when I hung up and ran to the hospital. Eleven of the fourteen patients were up and walking around. I was happy when I saw my dad, then I saw the blood all down his front. He was a monster like the rest of them." She looked at Danny with tears in her eyes.

"I ran away. I couldn't go back home and I didn't have anywhere else to go in Amity, then I remembered you. I looked up the address you gave me when you first moved here and I left."

She let the tears roll down her face. Jazz pulled her into a hug and Valerie hugged back.

When she calmed herself down again, she looked around. The first thing she saw was the panic in Danny's eyes.

"I looked at the list of patients, there wasn't a single Manson or Foley on it." She said, practically reading Danny's mind.

Danny nodded in thanks, her words helped a little.

Vlad burst into the room. "I need a way to stabilize the field while it is in motion without thinning it out or this will never work!" He looked up from his notes and saw the addition to the group in his living room.

"I didn't know we had a guest."

Danny noticed the glare Valerie shot at Vlad. "I didn't know you were the old friend Danny was staying with." She shot at him.

Vlad looked at her in confusion, then recognition slid across his face. "Ah, miss Valerie Gray. It's been a while, hasn't it."

"It has. Last time I saw you, you changed into a ghost!"

At hearing these words, Danny instinctually shifted so he was between the two.

Vlad flinched back in surprise. "You saw that, did you?"

Danny had never seen this level of rage on the Red Huntress' face. "Yeah I saw! You tried to kill a little girl!"

"To be fair, I was half crazed out of my mind at the time, and she forgave me." Vlad pointed to Dani, who, until this moment, had gone unrecognized by Valerie.

"I kinda forgave you. You're still paying me back." Dani crossed her arms and shot him a glare.

Vlad sighed. "Anyway, I'm better now. Sanest I've been since college."

Valerie looked between the two halfas in confusion. "You two live together now?"

Dani smiled at her. "Well, yeah. He's my dad after all."

This mad Valerie's anger worse. She glared at Vlad again. "You're her dad and you tried to kill her?!"

"She was unstable and going to die anyway. I planned on studying her so I could produce another, more stable child. I couldn't afford to get attached when I knew she wouldn't last, so I treated her like any of my other projects." Vlad explained.

"That doesn't make it right!"

Vlad was starting to get annoyed. "Child, if I got attached to all of my projects, I would be in mourning until the day I die and then some. It isn't wise to get attached to temporary things."

He glanced at Dani and saw the tears in her eyes. He bent down and put a hand on her shoulder. "I promise I don't think that way now. Phantom stabilized you when I couldn't. I could never express how happy I am to have you be permanent."

Dani smiled and went to sit so she could lean on Jazz.

Valerie looked between the ghost girl and Vlad. "You really have changed. But that still doesn't excuse what you did!"

Vlad sighed. "I know."

Danny cleared his throat. Vlad and Valerie looked at him.

"Sorry to interrupt, but you were talking about the containment field?"

"Ah, yes. I need it to keep its shape even when in constant motion, like a bubble floating through the air, but still be strong enough that it can be used as a cage." Vlad explained.

Valerie was still staring at Danny. He looked up and met her eyes. "What is it?"

"You knew."

"Knew what?"

"About Mr. Masters. About Danielle. About them being ghosts!" She accused him.

Danny awkwardly scratched the back of his head. "Well, yeah."

"How long."

He looked at her eyes, they were cold and accusing. Danny knew he couldn't lie. He sighed. "About a month after Phantom showed up, and a few weeks before you became the red huntress."

She nodded slowly. "Ok, and I get why you wouldn't tell me." She glanced at Dani then back to Danny. "Did you know Phantom?"

Danny looked from Vlad to Jazz then back to Valerie. "Yeah, I know him."

"Were you the one that gave him all that Fenton equipment? Is that why they kicked you out?" Her words would have sounded harsh, like an interrogation, but to Danny they sounded curious and almost betrayed.

"Something like that."

Valerie picked up on the awkward hesitation in his voice, but she didn't comment on it. "Phantom hasn't been in Amity since you left. Did he come here because of those two or did he follow you?"

Danny blushed a bit. "He came with me, but you don't have to make it sound all stalkerish."

Jazz could have sworn she could hear the gears turning in Valerie's head, then the Red Huntress' eyes went wide. "Are you and him, you know, together?" Her face was almost as red as her suit when she said this.

Danny's face flushed to match. "No! We're not- it's- it's complicated, but we're not a couple!"

Dani had to leave the room so she wouldn't laugh. Jazz and Vlad followed.

Valerie's face flushed even more at his words. "Then try to explain it!"

Danny looked like he was arguing with himself. Valerie gave him a moment to compose himself.

Before he could back out, Danny let the rings appear around his waist, traveling up and down his body, leaving Phantom to stand in Valerie's presence.


	3. Chapter 3

Valerie stared at the ghost she had named her enemy. "You..."

Danny scratched his neck awkwardly. It was a little unnerving for Valerie to see the most powerful ghost in Amity using the same little quirks as wimpy Danny Fenton. Knowing they were the same person.

Knowing she had tried to kill him.

"I wanted to tell you, back when you helped me save Danielle. You seemed like you were ok with the fact a human could be part ghost and not be evil, but I didn't want to risk you hating me." Danny's cheeks flushed green.

Valerie looked like she wanted to beat herself up, so Danny kept talking. "I didn't tell anyone who didn't figure it out for themselves."

"So who else knew?"

"At first it was just Sam and Tucker. Vlad found out same time I found out about him. Jazz found out soon after that but she didn't tell me she knew until after the CATs. And most of the ghosts knew as soon as they saw me." Danny listed.

"What about Danielle?" Valerie asked, glancing at the door the others left through.

"Dani's a special case." Danny scratched his neck again. "You know how Vlad said she's his daughter?"

Valerie nodded.

"That's only partially true. He created her, but not with his DNA." Danny could see the confusion on her face, so he continued. "Keep in mind, Vlad's a brilliant scientist. He was losing his sanity when he made her. He wanted the love of a family and refused to settle for less than me and my mom."

"He knows how gross that sounds, right?"

"Like I said, insane. He tried cloning me, but all his attempts failed and melted into goop, except Dani. She got away from him and I've been helping her ever since."

Valerie nodded, she knew about how Danny stabilized the girl with her help. "So how did you all end up living with Vlad?"

Danny smiled sadly. "He changed when he found out what my mom did. He never wanted to believe she could be cruel. She kicked me out. Vlad started to move on.

"But he really did care about her, and he cares about her children more now. He offered to take us in, no strings attached, we could leave any time we want. We said yes."

"I don't think I'd be able to trust him after the whole cloning thing." Val winced a bit at the thought.

Danny chuckled. "I've been told I'm both clueless and too trusting."

Valerie nodded, unable to keep the smile off her face. They spent a blissful moment laughing. They both thought it was over too soon.

Valerie looked into the face of the ghost she had promised herself she would kill. The ghost she blamed for ruining her life, and eventually changing her for the better.

"I'm so sorry."

Danny looked at her. The pain in her eyes hit him like a wave. He opened his mouth to comfort her, but she interrupted him.

"No! Don't! Don't try to make excuses for me. You do that, you feel the need to take everyone's burdens on your shoulders. But this was all me. You tried so many times to make me see you weren't evil. I didn't listen, worse I tried to kill you for it!

"I'm so sorry, I'm so, so sorry! I was the worst human being ever! How can you still treat me like a friend?"

She watched his face through all this, reading his reaction. There was sadness, but not for himself. The understanding in his eyes was almost painful, but the worse was the pure forgiveness.

"Val, I never blamed you for any of that. That was terrible coincidences and my enemies using us as pawns to take each other out."

"See! You're trying to shift the blame off me!"

"Well, yeah. You're blaming yourself for nothing!"

"I tried to kill you! Multiple times!" Something clicked in her mind. "We dated. You knew who I was from the beginning and you still liked me enough to date me."

Danny smiled. "Yeah, I really liked you. And like I said, I never blamed you for your hatred of ghosts."

This just made her feel worse. "I don't deserve for someone as sweet as you to care about me. I celebrated when I made you bleed! I tortured you! I'm a monster."

Danny looked her right in the eyes, she couldn't believe the level of seriousness and, was that self hatred?

"You are not a monster, and you never will be. I've seen a true monster, believe me, you could never do something bad enough to be classified as a monster."

Trapped in the storm of emotions rolling off him, all Valerie could do was nod. The emotions calmed down.

"Will I ever hear that story?" She asked slowly, not wanting to upset him any further.

His eyes were cold as he stared at some point behind her. "If you're lucky, you'll never have to know about him, the details are too terrible."

She stared at him, wondering who could be so bad that it made what she did, what even Vlad did, seem so small in comparison.

Neither teen had noticed the red head standing in the door, listening to them talk, that is until she ran into the room and pulled Danny into a hug.

Valerie watched the two, reading their emotions. Somehow Jazz was able to radiate a constant wave of calm understanding.

Danny was another story. First there was the cold fury. That slowly shifted to a fear so strong that it scared Valerie just to think about what caused it. He eventually shifted to self loathing.

Jazz felt this shift. Valerie could barely hear what she whispered to her brother, it sounded like "not you, never will be."

This seemed to be the exact right thing to say because his face went from hatred to shock-like he hadn't noticed his sister hugging him before this point-then to a sad thankfulness.

"Thanks Jazz." He whispered as he hugged her back.

Valerie felt like she was watching something more personal than a simple hug, they had been through more than most adults and Valerie could feel how strong that bond was.

She would have almost been jealous of it, if she hadn't seen the emotional scars from whatever trauma had helped build this closeness.

Valerie had never felt so uncomfortable. Not when her dad started dating and she had seen them making out. Not when she had accidentally walked in on Star and Kwan. This was much more intimate than that.

She was saved by Dani who came rushing into the room. "Jazz, Danny, Vlad wants to see you in his study."

Danny pulled away from his sister. "Ok." He looked at Valerie. "If you have more questions about how halfas work, ask Dani." He smiled at the ghost girl.

Val was surprised by how fast he went from serious back to his normal happy, childish self. She looked between him and his clone (man that was weird to think about).

Dani had seemed worried when she walked in and saw the siblings hugging, she knew about how close they were and this display meant something bad. Danny being his normal self made her see that the hug had helped and that he was ok now.

These were the things he did daily, this is how his own parents had never found out. Valerie was impressed, but at the same time it made her sad to see how easily he put on this perfect mask.

"Ok." Danny smiled at her, then he left.

He and Jazz walked down the hall together. Jazz kept a hand on his arm, making sure he was actually ok. He smiled sadly at her. He knew he would probably never be fully ok, but he was better for now.

She returned the smile as they walked into the study.

Vlad was sifting through a mountain of papers, occasionally writing on one or another.

"You wanted to see us?" Jazz asked when it didn't look like he had noticed them.

He looked up. "Hm? Oh! Yes, I wanted to discuss how vulnerable you are in a fight, Jasmine."

Jazz's eyebrows scrunched in confusion and annoyance. "If I remember correctly, I was trained by my mom in hand to hand fighting and the use of ghost weaponry. And Danny and I were able to foil a few of your plans a few years ago."

Danny snickered at this.

Vlad didn't flinch. "I am fully aware of your skill and your victories, that is not in question. The fact remains that, compared to ghosts, or even miss Gray in her battle suit, you are extremely defenseless.

"You were able to defeat me with the help of your brother and my battle suit. Any other victories you had help from either Daniel, one of his friends, or one of your parents inventions."

Danny rolled his eyes. "So, what are you getting at?"

"I am working on plans to build you your own battle suit. This one will not only be well equipped for fighting ghosts, but these new zombie creatures as well."

Danny and Jazz's eyes widened at the thought. A cool new suit? That sounded awesome to both of them.

"What plans do you have so far?" Jazz asked, walking over to look through his notes with Danny floating behind her.

"I combined parts of the Ecto-Skeleton with your parents' Ghost Peeler technology. The peeling was barbaric and crude at best, so that feature is gone. The suit should enhance strength and speed, but not quite to the level of the Ecto-Skeleton.

"It will form around your body in a way that is similar to the Ghost Peeler. We still need to fit it to you. The weapons will be some of my own design and you will be allowed to change any style aspects as long as it does not interfere with the weaponry." Vlad explained.

Jazz smiled as she looked through the notes on his desk. "Thank you! This sounds amazing!"

Danny smiled as they got into the technical parts. He decided to leave them to their nerd stuff.

He left the study and went to find Dani and Val.

The girls were sitting in the kitchen, eating Vlad's fancy ice cream.

"Hey girls. Wanna go on patrol with me? I need to make sure there aren't any ghosts causing problems during the confusion." Danny asked, stealing Dani's spoon to get a bite.

Val smiled. "Sure. Sounds like a good way to blow off some stress."

Dani snatched her spoon back. "I thought you didn't want anyone near the zombies."

"I don't, but you and Valerie can stay up in the air and away from them." He explained. "I can search around ground level, you two get a bird's eye view and cover more ground."

Dani rolled her eyes. "Fine, I'm in."

Danny smiled and put the ice cream away so they could get ready. He pulled something out of his pocket and handed them to the girls.

"Keep these in your ear. This way we can communicate even if we're on opposite sides of the city."

They both put in the Fenton Phones.

Five minutes later they were all split up around the city. Dani was patrolling near the schools, Valerie had the perimeter, and Danny was speeding through the streets.

He turned invisible around the busier places. Everything was eerily quiet.

The Fenton Phones buzzed to life. "All clear so far on the perimeter." Valerie informed the halfas.

"The schools too. Is it just me or is everything too quiet?" Dani asked.

"I know what you mean. I'm almost done with this quadrant. I'm moving on to the third section. Dani, cover me from the air. Val, continue on perimeter."

They both acknowledged his instructions. Danny looked up as he flew and saw a little white streak flying to the downtown area.

Danny was not looking forward to going near that hospital. He could almost agree with Tucker's opinion of the place at this point.

"All quiet along the river." Valerie's voice sounded in the halfas' ears.

"All clear from what I can see here too. I don't get why we can't just-" Dani s voice cut off and Danny sped up.

"What is it? Dani?" He asked through the devices.

"I think I see something. I'm gonna check it out!"

"No! Stay in the air! Dani!" Danny pushed himself to go faster. Dani wasn't responding and Danny could see one terrible scenario after another flash through his mind.

"Dani! Talk to us!" Valerie demanded. Danny could hear the wind in her headset, she must be doing the same thing he was.

Danny got near the hospital and started looking around. Dani wasn't there. Danny flew into the air to get a better view.

He saw flashes of green light between two buildings behind the hospital. He took off at top speed.

He found Dani backing out of the alley away from a zombie, sending ecto blasts into the creature's face whenever she had an opening.

Danny landed next to her, blasting the thing in the chest. It stumbled back a bit but kept moving forward.

"Dani, get out of here!"

"But I thought Dad wanted to catch one!" She shot again and just barely missed its left shoulder.

"We have no way to contain it! Go find Valerie and get back to the house!" Danny sent a wave of ectoplasm at its chest. The burn would have been enough to knock out a human or at least make a ghost stop in its tracks.

The zombie didn't flinch.

"I'm not going anywhere!" Dani stopped to glare at Danny for a moment.

That was all the creature needed. It lunged at the girl.

Danny didn't have time to shoot it, so he did the only thing he could. He pushed Dani out of the way.

He heard Valerie shout and Dani gasp, but it didn't register. Danny was completely focused on the creature who's teeth were buried in his shoulder.

"Valerie! Get Dani out of here!"

"No!" Dani screamed. She flew at the zombie and knocked it off her brother.

Danny put up a shield between the girls and himself and the zombie. "Get out of here!" He tried again.

"No way Phantom! We needed a zombie for Plasmius, now we have one. You have some time before the infection spreads, we can get you both back to him and his containment thing." Valerie kept her body language strong and commanding, but Danny could hear the fear in her voice.

He wanted to keep them all safely away from him when he turned, but that would leave him wandering around as a zombie with ghost powers. It was better to have Vlad contain him.

Danny nodded. "Ok, I'll carry the zombie. One of you fly ahead and tell Vlad."

Dani took off for the mansion. Valerie kept a gun ready in case the zombie attacked, or Danny did.

Danny used his ecto energy to create rope around the creature so it couldn't struggle so much. He lifted it by the back of the ecto ropes and carried it into the air.

"Ok, let's go."

Valerie flew behind Danny all the way back. Vlad met them outside as Plasmius.

"Bring it in." He lead the way to his lab. Danny turned the thing intangible so he could follow.

Vlad lead him into the room where he keeps his test subjects and opened two different doors. Danny threw the zombie in one, letting the ecto rope dissolve.

Then he flew into the next cell, prepared to die.


	4. Chapter 4

While Danny was putting himself and the zombie in quarantine, Dani was talking with Jazz.

"I just feel like it's my fault." Dani frowned into her glass of water.

"I'm sure you did everything you could." Jazz tried, she still didn't know the whole story so it was difficult to help.

"I didn't. I went up to it even though Danny told me to stay in the air. I freaked out and blasted it. I stopped paying attention to the fight and Danny had to save me and now..."

She didn't continue and Jazz didn't push her to. She pulled the younger girl into a hug and let her cry.

Danny watched through the glowing green walls as Vlad rushed from table to table, occasionally making duplicates so he could do more at once.

"What are you doing?"

Vlad looked at him and Danny was surprised to see the sadness in his eyes. "I'm trying to figure out a cure. If I can make one that works for a human, I can tweak it to help you."

Danny watched him. "If you find a cure for humans, I want you to give the formula to the humans before you start trying to cure me."

Vlad looked like he wanted to argue, but the serious look on Danny's face quieted him. "All right, little badger."

Danny smiled and Vlad went back to his work.

Three silent hours later, Valerie came into the lab. Danny looked up and watched her look around awkwardly.

She walked up to Vlad, interrupting his work. "Can I talk to Danny for a bit? On my own."

Vlad looked between the teens and nodded. "I suppose now would be as good a time as any to get something to eat, I just got some new ice cream that I've been dying to try."

Danny held in a chuckle and Valerie looked like she wanted to be invisible. Vlad left and it was just the two of them and the zombie.

"You know he'll be mad when he sees it." Danny chuckled.

"Yeah, but it was Dani's idea and I only had two bites." Val defended.

Danny's chuckle turned into a full laugh. "I don't think I've ever heard anything more childish come from your mouth."

She pouted for a second before dropping to sit on the other side of the green wall from Danny. "Probably. But making you laugh isn't the reason I came down here."

"Too bad. I could use a good laugh." Danny slid down to the floor so he was sitting next to her.

"I think we all could right now." She stared at her shoes and sighed. "How are you feeling?"

"I don't feel like I'm a zombie yet, if that's what you meant. We don't know how the Zombie virus effects halfas. It could take a lot longer than normal and we just don't know. Other than that though, I'm about as good as I can be."

Valerie smiled a bit, but it didn't last long. She sighed and looked at Danny. "I'm sorry."

"For what?" He was honestly confused, there was no way she thought him getting bit was her fault, is there?

"Breaking up with you. I never told you, but I was considering giving up ghost hunting to be with you."

Danny wanted to put a hand on her shoulder, even hug her, but the most he could do is put a hand on the wall. "I knew. I was trying to stop Technus from getting control of that satellite and I overheard you talking to your dad."

Valerie stared at him in shock before it slowly shifted to sadness. "You knew. How do you not hate me? You knew I was the Red Huntress from the beginning, you knew I picked my hatred for you over my love, I would hate me. I kinda do."

"As a ghost, I know a few things about obsessions. I wouldn't have given up my obsession for you, and I couldn't expect you to give up yours." Danny said with a reassuring smile.

"I'm not a ghost."

"No, but humans can have obsessions too. They can even be stronger than a ghost's. A human's obsession is built over time through emotional attachment. A ghost's obsession is born with them through the last emotions they had in life.

"An obsession like a human has can take over their whole mind and push them past their limits. A ghost's obsession is built into their limit."

She looked into his eyes. "What does that say about halfas?"

Danny looked thoughtful for a moment before smiling. "We don't really know, Vlad thinks it means we can change obsessions like humans and we just get stronger with our emotions."

"What's your obsession?"

Danny flinched at this. Among ghosts, an obsession is not something you just ask about, it's extremely personal. "You can't just ask about that. It's like asking a human about their deepest hopes and dreams."

"Sorry. I just wanted to know, I mean you know mine, so I figured I should know yours."

Danny sighed. She didn't know it, or maybe she did, but she was saying exactly what she had to. "You're right, it's only fair. My obsession is protection. Specifically protecting the people and things that mean the most to me."

Valerie thought about this for a minute. "You said a ghostly obsession is made with strong emotions at the time of death, but you're not dead."

"Not entirely, but I am technically half dead. Half of my DNA is ectoplasmic. I died, but at the same time, dying kept me alive."

She looked at him in confusion. "How does that work?"

Danny leaned against the wall. "It was the beginning of sophomore year. My parents were testing their ghost portal. It didn't work so they left to try going over their notes for the billionth time.

"Sam and Tucker were there with me to watch the portal." He hesitated here, but not long enough to catch Valerie's attention. "We decided I should go in and look around, I tripped over some wires and I pressed the final on switch.

"The portal activated while I was in it. The ectoplasmic radiation, coupled with the massive amount of electricity, killed me and kept me alive at the same time."

She watched him with horror. Valerie knew it had to be something bad, all the books she read said the same thing, ghosts only come from violent or traumatic deaths. But she never expected it to be this bad. "How did your parents never find out? They live with you! They couldn't have been too far away when the portal went off! Didn't they hear it?"

Danny stared into space. "I don't know, maybe it wasn't as loud outside as it was in. I just took it as a blessing, considering how they reacted when I told them." He winced at this, he didn't like thinking about that.

"That doesn't make it any better."

"It kinda did. I had time to learn my powers and get stronger and more independent. If my parents had kicked me out right after the accident I might not have survived.

"Sam would have wanted me to move in with her, but her parents hate me and my whole family, so that wouldn't have worked. Tucker would try too, but his family can't really afford to take care of me.

"It's better the way it happened. I had a few years to get control and learn to care for myself. Another thing is Jazz. She figured out my secret on her own. She's been helping me ever since, even when I didn't know she knew.

"My parents kicking me out when they did was a good thing. Jazz had her own place and I was able to get there on my own."

Valerie hadn't thought about any of that. She couldn't imagine her own dad kicking her out for any reason, but both Danny's parents had agreed that he should be gone. If he hadn't had Jazz, she didn't even want to think about that.

Danny was watching her. She saw the concern in his eyes, it broke her heart. "How are you such a good person? I would hate your parents, I would resent all of Amity Park. How were you able to get up every day and protect the people who wanted you dead?"

He looked at the ceiling and shrugged. "It's just who I am. Someone needed to protect them and I was the only one who could."

"They called you public enemy number one! For a long time, so did I." Valerie could feel the tears start building in her eyes, blurring her vision.

Danny gave her a calming smile. "I know. I tried to give it up once or twice, that only proved to me how much I needed to be there. Every time I quit almost ended the world."

Valerie sighed. "That is way too much responsibility for a kid. I would have cracked."

Danny's face took on that same cold expression as earlier when he was talking about a true monster. "I did."

"You did? When?" Valerie was confused. If Danny had snapped, surely someone would have seen it.

The mask slid over his face again. His cold hatred was covered by his usual childish optimism. "It's nothing. I got better."

Valerie wanted to know what was going on in his head, but something told her now was not the time to press. "Ok."

They sat in silence for a few minutes. Danny took the time to recollect himself. He was so focused on his inner turmoil that he didn't hear Valerie talk.

It took three tries to get his attention. "Danny!"

"Huh?" He looked at her with confusion. She rolled her eyes.

"I asked you a question."

"Sorry, I was lost in thought, what was your question?" He asked, sheepishly.

"Why didn't you try to stop me from breaking up with you?"

"I did, you wouldn't hear me."

She looked at her shoes again. "I'm sorry."

Danny offered her a smile. "It's not your fault. We wouldn't have lasted all that long to begin with."

"Why do you say that?"

"Neither of us knew this at the time, but a ghost was pushing our relationship to keep us distracted from his plan. Without that push, we wouldn't have gotten far."

Valerie looked conflicted at this information. "You mean one of the best relationships I've had was being manipulated by a ghost?"

Danny looked at her. "It was really one of the best?" She shot him a glare. "Sorry."

"Yeah, it was. But I don't want it if it was fake."

Danny nodded. "I know how that feels."

Their eyes met, there was quiet for a split second before they both started laughing.

When they were able to breathe again, Danny smiled at her. "I like this. We make better friends than a couple."

"Yeah, we really do."

They were sitting there smiling like idiots when Vlad stormed in. "Out. I need to get to work."

Valerie raised her hands in surrender and looked back at Danny. "I'll see you later."

He nodded and watched her leave. When she was gone, Danny turned to look at Vlad. "Why are you so grumpy?"

"Someone ate half of my new ice cream. That was expensive and imported!" Vlad didn't turn around, but Danny could practically see the pouty scowl on his face.

"Did you figure out who?" Danny forced the laugh back down his throat.

"Danielle. She says she ate it herself, but I doubt it." He angrily scribbled something in a notebook.

Vlad grabbed something from another table, Danny couldn't see it from where he was. Vlad walked to the cell with the zombie.

He made two duplicates. One opened the cell door, the other ran in to restrain the zombie. Vlad walked into the cell and opened the case he was holding.

He pulled out a needle and Danny could see several empty vials still in the case.

Vlad jammed the needle in the zombie's arm. He hooked a vial to the end of the cord and it filled with what Danny could only assume was blood, but it was a greenish brown color.

Vlad repeated this, filling several more vials, before he left the cell, letting his duplicates fade.

Danny watched him put the vials into a small fridge. "What was that?"

"I was collecting samples to test antidotes on. If one of my attempts proves fatal, I don't want to lose my only test subject."

Danny nodded in understanding. Vlad closed the fridge and disposed of the needle he used on the zombie. Danny watched him pull another case from one of the various drawers. This time he walked to Danny.

"What are you going to do?" He asked nervously.

"I want to keep a record of how fast you change. I'll compare it to the blood sample I took from you when you first moved in, then compare it to the ones I took from the zombie."

Danny nodded and held out his arm for Vlad to take a sample.

When he was done, Danny watched him bring the sample to the part of his lab that was set up for medical stuff.

It was quiet while Vlad ran tests. Danny eventually fell asleep.

Two days since Danny was bitten, and Vlad made a discovery.

"How does that work? It can't be." He ran from one computer to another, checking all of his data.

He looked at Danny and frowned. "Tell me how you feel."

"Fine I guess, why?"

Vlad put four different screens up on his computer wall. They showed the blood samples. Three were a distinct mix of red and green, one a little more muddy than the others, and the last looked like swamp mud.

"These three are your blood. The one I took when you first moved in, the one I took when you were first bitten, and the one I took a few hours ago." He gestured to the three red and green ones.

"And this last one is our friend here." He pointed to the brown one.

Danny looked at his blood samples. "So I'm guessing the one that's more brown is the one from today."

"That is where you are wrong. The muddy one is from when you were first bitten, this is the one from today." He pointed to the one that looked almost completely like his normal blood.

Danny stared blankly at the screen. "So that means-"

"It means you are getting better. For whatever reason you are immune to this virus."


	5. Chapter 5

Danny could only stare at Vlad. Immune? Is that possible?

"I'll need a few more tests, but I should be able to release you from your prison."

"What other tests?" Danny asked, nervous.

"I simply need a sample of my own blood and possibly Danielle's. I will then introduce the zombie virus to the samples and observe them, see if we have the same reaction you did."

Danny smiled. "So that means I can go see everyone?"

"Yes, please send Danielle down here." Vlad opened the cell and Danny ran out. The cell was designed to restrict ghostly abilities while the door was closed. Danny spent a moment just enjoying the use of his powers again.

"Ok, I'll go get her!" Danny crouched down and shot himself up through the ceiling intangibly. Vlad let himself chuckle at Danny's enthusiasm before getting back to work.

Danny flew at top speed through room after room until he found the girls talking in Jazz's room.

"It'll stay out of the way better if you tie it near the top instead of the bottom." Jazz said to Dani.

"It's true. But if you hate it so much why not just cut it short?" Valerie asked.

"I like it long, I just wish it was easier to manage." Dani tugged at a loose strand of hair.

Jazz was about to say something else when she noticed her brother. "Danny!"

Danny smiled as all three girls stared at him. Dani flew at him, catching him in a hug. Jazz was close behind, and Valerie just smiled from her spot on the bed.

"I'm so glad you're ok little brother." Danny could feel a few tears soaking into his shirt.

"So am I."

"Did Dad figure out a cure?" Dani asked.

"No. Apparently I'm immune to the zombie virus. Speaking of, Vlad wants you in the lab to test you." He said with a smile.

Dani nodded and phased through the floor. When she was gone, Danny let his smile fall a bit.

Jazz pulled him so he was sitting between her and Valerie on the bed.

"Tell us." She demanded. Danny looked at her and sighed when he saw she had her serious therapist look on.

"It's nothing. I'm just worried."

"About being immune to zombies? Shouldn't that be a good thing?" Valerie glanced from Danny to Jazz.

Jazz shook her head and Danny sighed again. "No, I'm worried about Dani. If she's immune like me, she's going to want to go into more and more dangerous situations. Even if she won't turn, she could still get hurt."

Jazz put a comforting hand on his shoulder. "She's pretty strong. Not as strong as you or Vlad, but still strong."

"I know, but it's hard. I can't send other people into dangerous situations for me. It goes against everything I stand for." He clenched his fists and glared at the floor. "I barely want her in that lab."

"This is the best case scenario we could hope for in this whole nightmare. You having immunity is great, Dani having immunity would be better, Vlad having immunity would almost be perfect." Jazz said, soothingly.

The corner of Danny's mouth twitched up, but it fell back down. "Yeah, you're right."

Valerie stood up and put her hands on her hips. "Good, now I don't know about you two, but I want to go check out that pool I saw yesterday."

"Do you have a suit?" Danny asked. Valerie hadn't had very much with her when she arrived.

"No, and I don't think anything Jazz has will fit me."

Jazz smiled. "Actually, I have one of my mom's bikinis. I packed it on accident. It might fit."

Valerie glanced at the two, they didn't look embarrassed at the thought, so it couldn't be too revealing. "Ok, I can try it on."

Danny smiled and Jazz got up to find the swimsuits.

Down in the lab, Dani sat on a table, watching Vlad mix her blood sample with the infected blood of the zombie.

"So, am I immune?"

Vlad glanced over at his daughter. She was swinging her legs and smiling.

"I won't know for a few days. Could you please send Jasmine down here, I want to work on her suit while we wait for the results."

"Sure." She smiled and flew through the ceiling. Vlad let his smile fade as he looked back through the microscope at his own sample. It was almost completely brown.

Dani flew back into Jazz's room and saw that they were gone. There was a note on the bed.

'We went to the pool. Come join us'

"Sweet! I love the pool!" Dani flew down the hall to her own room. She quickly changed into her swimsuit and took off for the pool.

"Why didn't either of you bring a towel?" Valerie asked the Fenton siblings.

"Danny just phases the water off us when we're done. No need to dirty up a towel." Jazz explained from the edge of the pool. She had her legs in the water and she was reading a book.

"I've been doing it ever since I got control of my intangibility." Danny was already in the water, floating on his back.

Just then, Dani phased through the ceiling above the pool. "CANNON BALL!"

The girls screamed when the splash hit them. Danny laughed when she resurfaced.

"Excellent form, ten out of ten!"

Dani floated up into the air above the pool and bowed. "Why thank you!"

Danny looked at the other girls. Valerie shrugged and ran to jump in.

The splash hit Jazz again and Danny could practically see flames in her eyes.

"Here, let me help." Danny flew over and put a hand on her arm. The water phased through her and she sat there perfectly dry, except for the soggy book.

Danny grabbed the book and did the same for it. He handed it back, good as new.

"Thank you." She didn't smile, but the scowl went away.

"Oh yeah! Jazz! Dad wants you in the lab. He wants to work on the battle suit." Dani said as she swam up to the edge.

"Ok, I'll see you guys later." Danny waved goodbye while Dani and Val started setting the rules for a cannon ball contest.

Jazz put her clothes on over her suit and walked to Vlad's lab. "Vlad? You wanted to work on the suit?"

She heard him quickly moving something and rustling papers before he responded. "Yes, come in Jasmine."

Jazz walked down the stairs and into the lab. Vlad was leaning against a table with a microscope on it.

"What were you doing?"

"It was nothing for you to worry about, my dear." Vlad walked away from the table and Jazz decided to let it go for now. "Thank you for coming as fast as you did."

"No problem. I'm really excited about this battle suit." She smiled and walked with Vlad over to one of his work tables.

Vlad handed Jazz a folder with her name on it. She opened it and looked through the design sketches. "I like this one, can I borrow this to try out some colors?"

Vlad glanced at the paper. That one had been his personal favorite as well. "Of course, Jasmine, but I will need it back to make a final product."

Jazz nodded. "I was just going to copy it into a notebook and add colors to that."

Vlad handed the page back to her. She watched him type on the keyboard of a huge pod.

"I will need your exact measurements to make sure the suit will work to its full potential." He pointed to a drawer. "In that drawer should be swim caps. Your hair will throw off the machine."

Jazz opened the drawer and pulled out one of the black caps.

"You will also need to disrobe, down to your under things."

Jazz spun to look at the man. He looked embarrassed and seemed to be avoiding looking at her.

"Good thing I have my swimsuit on under this." She watched his shoulders relax a bit. She almost wanted to laugh at how awkward he was for a charismatic billionaire.

"When you are ready, step into the pod so it can scan for your measurements."

Jazz did as she was told and stood in the pod. The door closed and she heard it seal. The pod was dark and smaller than it looked.

A ring lit up at the top and it slowly slid down the pod. She heard Vlad say what sounded like 'don't move'. Jazz put her hands to her sides and held still.

The ring traveled down then back up to the top. Jazz stood perfectly still until it turned off at the top. The door opened and Jazz stepped out.

She put her clothes back on while Vlad checked the data. "Now that I have this, it won't take long to build the suit. You may go now, if you wish."

Jazz looked back at the desk Vlad had been at when she got there. "Vlad, what were you working on just before I got here?"

She walked over and started flipping through the notes.

"Jasmine! Please just leave that alone!" He flew up to her and pulled the papers from her hands, but not before she had read some of one.

"That was about Danny. Is something wrong with him? If there's something wrong with my little brother I need to know!"

"It has nothing to do with Daniel."

"Then Danielle!"

"No! It is neither of them! It's me!"

Jazz stared at him while what he had shouted caught up with his brain. He sighed and put the papers on the desk. He turned on three of the monitors above the desk.

Two had a live feed of glowing green blood with little flecks of red. One was slightly more brown than the other. The brownish one had a picture of Dani, the green one had a picture of Danny.

The third screen was almost solid brown with flecks of pink. This one had a picture of Vlad.

"This is what I was working on. I took a blood sample from Daniel, Danielle, and myself. I then introduced the zombie virus to the samples. Daniel's is completely clear, Danielle's is almost done clearing, and then there's mine."

Vlad sighed and turned on a fourth monitor. This one looked like Vlad's, but without the pink. "This is a sample I took from my test subject. A human infected with the virus. I'm sure you see by now what's wrong."

Jazz nodded. "You can be infected."

"Not just that." Vlad looked at the zombie in the cage. "With the virus introduced, my blood was completely taken over in a matter of seconds. And then there's this."

A fifth screen lit up and showed another brown sample, but this time it had green in it. "This is what happened when I introduced my infected sample to Daniel's clean one."

"Do you know why it had such a violent reaction to you?" Jazz asked,, looking between the samples.

"I have one theory. My ecto-acne. It may be gone, but the scars are still on my DNA. It may have made crevices for the virus to cling to. Daniel and Danielle's molecular structures are twice as smooth as a humans with the ectoplasm filling any gaps.

"This virus attacks our very code, rewriting us. It needs to cling on long enough to do its job or it will be expunged naturally."

Vlad sat in one of the nearest chairs before continuing. "Daniel and Danielle both have accelerated healing. This power works on a molecular level, meaning even if your parents had succeeded in capturing Daniel, they would have been unable to remove more than three molecules before they would regenerate.

"I have a similar ability, but mine is only for superficial wounds. Poisons and viruses can be fatal to me while only being a minor annoyance for Daniel."

Jazz pulled a chair in front of Vlad and sat so she could offer comfort if needed. "That doesn't explain why you can infect them when they're immune."

Vlad handed her a file. "The ecto impurity in my DNA is taken by the virus. It sends this impurity through the new host and gives them my scars. Then the virus follows behind, taking advantage of the new crevices."

Jazz looked through the pictures and notes. "We should tell Danny. He would be able to make sure you don't get too close to any of those things."

Vlad frowned and looked away from the girl. "No, I don't want him worrying about me. He needs to be able to protect you and miss Gray and Danielle. If he's focusing on protecting me and something happens to one of you, I couldn't live with myself."

Jazz put a comforting hand on his knee. "He at least needs to know that the virus can hurt him if it comes from you. It would be just like him to try and keep you contained until we can make a cure, then get bit by you because he thinks he's immune."

"I don't want him focusing on that. It will distract him too much." Vlad closed his eyes. "But you are right in saying he would be reckless." He looked at Jazz. "Promise me that you won't tell him unless I get bit. I don't want him dwelling on it."

Jazz thought for a bit. "Ok, I won't tell him. But we do need to make sure you're less likely to be bit." Her eyes lit up when they fell on the table with the plans for her battle suit. "Make yourself armor! You need to be protected from the zombies and you don't want to worry Danny, so make yourself a zombie proof suit."

Vlad glanced at the mess of notes and plans, then he smiled. "That could work! I will need to test how hard a zombie can bite, and then I can make a suit with a material that is at least twice as strong as that."

Vlad was already in planning mode, so Jazz got up to let herself out, happy she could help him, and already thinking about a design for her own battle suit.


	6. Chapter 6

It has been three weeks since Vlad started work on the suits. Jazz's suit was complete except for the color. Vlad's was in the process of final tests.

At this point, the radio and TV signals were long since gone, the power was down in town, and every patrol Danny made through town made him feel more and more hopeless about finding human life.

Today, Danny was helping Vlad test his new suit. Vlad wanted it to not only be strong enough to prevent zombie bites, but also ecto blasts.

Jazz was reading her college biology book in the garden behind the house.

This left Dani and Valerie to spar in the gym.

"You're getting better. But you need to rely more on your physical body and less on your ghost powers." Val instructed as she once again knocked Dani to the mat.

"I know, it's just that I've had these powers for forever and telling me not to use them is like telling you to fight without using your arms." Dani sat up and stared at the older girl. It was frustrating for the young halfa to be unable to beat the human in a fight.

"You need to get used to it. You can't always use your ghost powers, sometimes you need to keep it secret. With these zombies everywhere, any people we meet will be hesitant enough in accepting our help, throw in the fact that three of our group is technically kinda dead and they might just start shooting at us." Valerie watched Dani float into the air to stand up.

"I know, I get what your saying, it's just really hard."

Valerie sighed. "Let's take a break. Wanna patrol the perimeter?"

Dani's face lit up. A patrol meant she might be able to fight something. She changed into her ghost half and the two girls raced for the front door.

The city was quiet. This level of silence would make anyone nervous. Danielle would usually suggest splitting up to cover more ground faster, but her nerves told her to stay as close to the older girl as possible.

They were near Dani's school when they finally heard noise.

"That sounded like an ectoblast!" Dani took off after the sound, Val close behind.

"Wait! We don't know who it is!" Valerie tried to make Dani slow down.

The ghost girl slowed just enough to look behind her at Valerie. "Has that ever stopped you?"

With that, she was back to racing across the sky. Val sighed and tried to keep up.

They stopped above the school and looked around.

"Where is it? I know I heard an ectoblast." Dani was scanning the playground when a blast hit her in the side, sending her flying away from Valerie.

"Dani!" Val spun to see where the blast came from. There was a woman in a red business suit floating next to a blobby green ghost.

"Hey, I know you. You're Penelope Spectra! You were the school therapist at Casper high during spirit week."

"Yep, it's amazing what teen angst does for the complexion!" She smirked at the girl. "I remember you, too. You were too dependent on material possessions, did you. Follow my advice and stop caring?"

Val growled. "I was forced to give all that up! I'm glad I didn't listen to you, if I had I wouldn't be the butt kicking ghost hunter I am today." She pressed a button on her arm and an ecto blaster grew out of the shoulder on her suit.

"I knew you needed another session or two." She turned her attention away from Val, ignoring the threat. Val noticed the green blob kept her in its sights.

"Now you I don't know." She directed at Dani. "You look like that Phantom kid, only weaker and female. He's not old enough to have a brat your age, and you don't strike me as a fan. Tell me about yourself."

Spectra watched Danielle like a cat contemplating playing with her catch, or just killing it.

"I'm Danielle Phantom. Danny's my cousin."

"You don't have to explain anything to her Dani. She'll just twist it around to hurt you." Val made her glider drift between Dani and the ghosts.

"Oh good! You did pay attention to my sessions! It only took Danny a week, his meddlesome sister figured it out soon after. Only, you haven't figured it out yet, have you? You still aren't very bright." Spectra said all this in a voice that would seem almost like she was trying to help, if you didn't listen to the words.

"I know enough not to trust you." Val let her gun charge. The green ghost growled and got between her and Spectra.

"Like I said, still stupid."

Spectra lunged at Dani while the blob attacked Val. She fired her gun and flew to the side. The blob matched her movements, avoiding the blast. Valerie had her work cut out for her.

Dani dodged Spectra and countered with a kick that was easily blocked. Dani felt a wave of hopelessness hit her when Spectra made contact.

"Ah, so you're a clone?" Spectra smirked.

Dani's eyes widened. "What? How did you know that?"

Her smirk grew wider. "I feed off negativity, dear. I pull it from you and it keeps me young and beautiful. When I feed on these emotions, they show me all of your little insecurities. You feel like a bad copy that will never be as good as the original. You know that you don't have his strength or skills and you're worried you never will. And you're right, even your name is just a bad copy of his, a joke!"

Dani wanted to ignore her words and just fight her, but they stuck. She couldn't ignore them when they stung this bad.

Spectra landed a solid punch on Dani's back. She yelled and cursed to herself. How had she not noticed Spectra get behind her?

"Dani! Head in the game!" Val shouted as she dodged another swipe from the blob, who now looked like a mountain lion.

Dani shook her head and focused on the fight, just in time to be grabbed by Spectra. "The worst part is that you feel like you're only causing problems for him. That bite would have been fatal if he hadn't been lucky. It could have just as easily been miss Gray here that took the bite for you. You're putting everyone in danger. They would all be better off without-"

Spectra reeled back when an ectoblast hit her in the face. "Dani, don't listen to her!"

Dani looked up and saw Valerie aiming a blaster at Spectra. The green ghost was trapped in some ecto fishing line behind her.

Dani watched her fight Spectra. Valerie had gotten better since the last time Dani saw her. She was avoiding direct contact with the ghost, using only her blasters.

Dani took a few deep breaths to calm her wild emotions. She turned to look at Spectra and saw she was charging her own ectoblast.

Dani's charged first.

It hit Spectra in the shoulder, causing her to let the blast dissipate.

"I may be a clone! I may be an imperfection! But I. Will. Not. Let. You. Hurt. My. Friends!" She punctuated every word with an ectoblast.

It took all the focus Spectra had to dodge or block each blast. Valerie took this opportunity to capture Spectra the same way she caught the green one.

Dani floated away from Valerie while she tied the ghosts together. When the older girl noticed the absence, she followed.

"Danielle, are you ok? I'm not as good as Jazz about these things, but I'm willing to listen."

Dani stopped when she heard the concern in Valerie's voice. She slowly turned around. Valerie's face was caring and understanding.

Dani let the tears flow.

Valerie pulled Dani into a hug and sat down on her hover board. They sat like this for over fifteen minutes. Valerie rubbed small circles on Dani's back and let her get it all out.

"I-I'm sorry." Dani sniffed when she could talk again.

"It's ok. I'm always here if you need to talk about these things. So is Jazz."

"I know. It's just hard for me to talk about. I'm a female clone made from male DNA. I have the temperament and emotions of a boy and the body of a little girl. Add ghost powers onto that and it's a miracle I'm still sane." She gave a humorless laugh.

Val put her arm around Dani's shoulders. "I can't come close to knowing what any of that's like, but I can try to understand if you want."

Dani sniffed and smiled. "Thanks."

The girls used Valerie's personal brand of thermos to capture Spectra and the green ghost. Dani stood on the back of the hover board, too emotionally exhausted to fly, on their way back to the mansion. What they saw when they arrived made their hearts drop.

"Danny!" Dani flew to the rubble that used to be her home.

Valerie was frozen in place. She stared at the wreckage, tears stinging her eyes.

It took her a moment to realize Dani was trying to move the rubble on her own, shredding her gloves and hands in the process.

"Dani, stop! You're hurting yourself."

"I don't care!" She started pushing a large section of what used to be the kitchen wall.

Valerie pulled her back. "Think! How are you any use to them if you can't use your hands? You have ghost powers, use them. Go through the rubble, not around it!"

Dani blinked the tears out of her eyes. She saw Valerie's face, a mixture of fear and sadness and determination. She nodded.

Valerie let her go and watched her vanish into the rubble. Val flew up into the air to get a better view of the damage.

Most of the house was down. The back wall of the building was still mostly standing, along with the reinforced training area. She decided to check those places. With any luck, the others would be there.

The training area was dead center in the house. It's mostly below ground. It connected to the back of the lab and was reinforced to withstand explosions, natural disasters, even ghosts. Vlad set up a ghost shield within the walls to prevent all full ghosts from entering, letting only humans and halfas through.

Valerie looked around and saw Dani swooping in and out of piles, making her way to the training room. Since she couldn't see the door, let alone go through it, Val left the training room for Dani to check. This left the back wall.

The wall had shielded the back garden from most of the debris. The grass was littered with shingles and broken glass, the occasional large chunk here and there.

Valerie flew over the yard. She stopped when she noticed Jazz's textbook next to what looked like a piece of the roof.

"Jazz?" Valerie landed next to the book and looked around. This is where she had been reading.

She was able to shift the rubble up just enough to check for Jazz. Not there.

"I guess that can be good, at least she wasn't crushed."

Valerie got up on her hover board again and did one more round over the yard before going back over the house. She landed just in time to see Dani come out of the pile of rubble closest to the training room.

"Dani, can you bring me into the training room? I couldn't get to the door and it's the most likely place for them to be."

Dani nodded. "I found the lab, or what's left of it. It looks like the explosion started there."

Valerie nodded and took Dani's hand. They phased through the ceiling and into a dark room. It took a moment for their eyes to adjust, but when they did, they smiled.

Jazz and Vlad were there, in the light radiating off Danny Phantom.


	7. Chapter 7

"Danny!" Dani dropped Valerie in her excitement. Val clicked her heels and let the hover board form below her. She landed next to Vlad. Dani was firmly attached to Danny's neck.

"What happened?" Valerie asked the oldest halfa.

"The ghost portal malfunctioned. It gave just enough warning for me to grab my projects and get them in here. Daniel was on his way to see Jasmine." Vlad waved a hand at the Fenton siblings.

Valerie looked at them. Jazz looked a little beat up, her normally neat hair falling around her face randomly.

Danny looked better, his hands were scraped up and he had a bruise on his cheek. Dani was still hiding her face in his shoulder. Danny was rubbing her back to calm her down.

Val walked up to Jazz. "You ok?"

Jazz jumped and looked at the younger girl. "Yeah, I was outside when the explosion happened. A piece of the roof fell on me. Danny was on his way to get me when the alarm sounded. His intangibility protected him from the debris, and when he was sure everything was done moving, he came and got me."

Val nodded. "I saw the piece of roof. That didn't look pleasant." That's when she remembered the textbook in her hand. "I forgot I brought this with me."

Jazz looked at the book and smiled. "Thanks, at least one of my books survived."

Danny finally got Dani to settle down. Leaving her to talk with Jazz, he floated over to Vlad, who was looking over his new suit. "Need any help?"

Vlad glanced at him. "A little more light would be appreciated."

Danny nodded and held out a hand. A lantern made of ice formed above his palm. With his other hand, Danny charged an ecto-spark. He placed it into the lantern and handed it to the older halfa.

Vlad looked at it curiously. "When did you learn this little trick?"

"Back when Undergrowth attacked. I used a crude, more explosive version of this to finally defeat him. I've been refining it. The spark should last about an hour, the ice can go a week in direct sunlight.

Vlad nodded, impressed. "Your ice powers still amaze me."

Danny smiled. He looked at the suit in Vlad's hands. "So is it ready to be worn?"

"It's not properly tested like Jasmine's, but in theory it should work." He handed it to Danny.

The shirt is all black except for a large white V that goes from shoulder to belt to shoulder and the white gloves. The belt is white and the shirt goes below it like his old suit. The pants were white with black boots. His signature cape was clipped on the shoulders.

The whole thing was made of flexible plates of what looked like Kevlar.

"Cool. And you're going to be wearing this from now on?" Danny ran a hand over the material.

"Yes, and before you ask, no I am not changing the hair."

Danny laughed at this. They had been arguing about Plasmius' hair ever since Danny moved in. "I'm just saying it would look less evil if you kept it like your human hair."

"And I'm saying I like my menacing appearance."

Danny laughed again and looked around. "Is that Jazz's?"

Vlad glanced at it. "Yes. Why don't you bring it to her." Danny heard him mumble something that sounded like 'and stop annoying me'.

Danny picked up the suit and carried it to the girls. "Jazz! You should try out the new suit!"

Dani looked at it and she jumped up to agree with Danny.

"How do I put it on?" She asked, holding it up to look it over.

Danny pushed a button on the glove. The suit pulled into the glove until the glove finally condensed into a fully functional watch.

He clipped the watch onto his sister's wrist. He pointed to a button on the side. "This button will do a final scan of you to make sure the suit will fit."

Jazz pressed the button and a beam came out and scanned her. When it was done, Danny pointed to another button. "This one activates the suit. Once it's on it'll monitor your vitals."

Jazz nodded and pressed the button. The watch expanded to cover her arm and hand, then the chest plate formed. The suit traveled over her body until she was completely encased.

The suit was simple black and silver. it looked similar to the Fenton Peeler, yet somehow sleeker and without the blasters on the hands.

"Impressive." Danny lifted Jazz's arm to get a better look at the material.

"Better than the one he made for me, but I think it's about par with my upgrades." Val walked around Jazz, looking at it from a huntress' point of view.

No one noticed Dani disappear through the wall until she came back with white paint and a brush. She pulled the helmet off Jazz's head and floated above the group.

"Dani?" Jazz looked up at the girl.

"Gimme a sec." She was painting something on the forehead of the helmet.

Danny floated up to her and laughed when he saw what she was making. Jazz glared at them. Danny waved her off. "Don't worry Jazz, I think you'll like it."

Danny landed next to Val and waited for Dani to finish. She flew down and held the helmet so the older girls could see.

"Wow. That's pretty exact." Val said with a raised eyebrow. "Impressive."

"You were right Danny, I like it." Jazz said as she stared at the white DP symbol now at the center of her helmet.

"You really like it?" Dani asked with a smile.

All three teens nodded. Dani beamed.

"Yay! I should have asked first, but it's just that when I was traveling, when I would stop to help people in my ghost half, people would see the symbol and smile. Some of them recognized it and said it made them feel safe. I think we need that right now."

Danny smiled at the memory of Sam. She made the symbol for him and he knew he would never change it. He was glad that her design gave people comfort.

As if she knew what Danny was thinking, Jazz put a hand on his shoulder and smiled.

Dani looked at Val. "Now all we need to do is get the symbol on your suit and Vlad's cape."

Val rolled her eyes and the three siblings laughed. Vlad looked over just long enough to make sure they weren't laughing at him, then went back to work.

They spent the next half hour testing the features on Jazz's suit, beating up a very unfortunate training dummy in the process.

"Daniel." Vlad was standing in the doorway of the changing room that was attached to the training room. He was wearing his new suit.

Danny flew over. "Yeah?"

"I want you to come with me to search the rubble outside."

Danny nodded. He flew over to the girls and told them what he would be doing. They waved him off and went back to testing flight mode.

Danny followed Vlad out through the ceiling.

"You go search the guest quarters, anything sentimental you and the others will want with you. If you can, grab a change of clothing for the others, don't forget under things."

Danny nodded and Vlad flew off to where the library used to be.

The hall where his family's rooms were was nothing more than a pile of rubble. Danny floated above where he remembered Jazz's room was.

He turned intangible and started looking through the piles.

It took hours, but Danny was finally done. He flew up above the house and saw Vlad leaving the training room and heading his way.

"Are you done?"

Danny nodded.

"Good, bring what you collected into the training room, I just need to check one more thing." Vlad took off and Danny went through the wall to bring his findings to the others.

He landed next to Jazz, who was watching Dani braid Valerie's hair.

"Am I interrupting?" He asked with a smile.

Val and Jazz laughed. Dani rolled her eyes. "No, this wouldn't be girl time without you."

Danny smiled. "If that's the attitude you're gonna have, maybe I'll go put your stuff back under the rubble."

That got Jazz and Val's attention. They both turned to see what Danny was holding.

Dani pouted. "You can be sarcastic but I can't? That isn't fair." She crossed her arms, but she still walked over to see what her bro was able to save.

"For Jazz, I have two full outfits, sorry I couldn't find any of your shoes, an extra pair of socks, and this." Danny handed her the clothing then held up a teddy bear with a lab coat and messy gray hair.

"Bearbert!" Jazz set down the clothes and pulled the bear into a hug.

Danny smiled and turned to Valerie. "I was able to find your duffle. That's some really sturdy material." He tossed her the red bag and she smiled.

"What about me?" Dani was floating around him, excited now.

"Most of your clothes were destroyed, I found a pair of shorts and some socks." He handed them to her. "I also found that hoodie you stole from me two months ago."

She grabbed the hoodie from him and put it on. It was one Sam had insisted on buying him. It was solid black with white on the inside of the hood and along the hems. It had neon green pulls and the DP symbol across the front.

"You never wore it, and it looks better on me." She stuck her tongue out at him.

Danny rolled his eyes.

"Did you find any of your stuff?" Jazz asked. Val was checking to make sure all her stuff was there.

"Yeah, a pair of jeans, some boxers, my NASA shirt, and that Fenton Works sweatshirt I got from Dad." He held up the four-sizes-too-big sweatshirt. "I also found a few of my star charts."

Val set her bag down. "Vlad brought an atlas and some other books from the library." She pointed to the stack.

Danny looked through the books. An atlas, like Val said. There was also A Guide to North American Plants, Jazz's Biology book, a basic first-aid instruction book, and what looked like a record of Vlad's inventions and experiments.

Danny added his star charts to the pile and looked around. Dani went back to braiding Val's hair. Jazz was checking her things for damage.

Vlad came back with a few things and a determined look on his face.

"I found a first-aid kit and a few duffle bags." He handed a bag to Jazz and Danny. "This was all I could salvage, so until we can acquire more, some of us will need to share."

"I can share with Danielle." Valerie offered.

"And we should keep boy things separate from girl things, so you and I should share." Danny said to Vlad.

"If this is all the storage we have, I can take supplies in mine." Jazz smiled.

Vlad nodded and brought her over to the supplies the halfas had collected.

Danny packed his and Vlad's clothes into his bag while Dani and Val figured out how to fit their own stuff.

When Vlad came back he handed a small first-aid kit to Danny and one to Valerie.

"In case something happens to one of the bags, we need to have medical supplies in all of them."

They nodded and shoved the kits to the bottom of the bags.

Vlad looked at the teens and sighed. "Get some rest. We leave tomorrow. I don't have a working vehicle, so it will be a lot of walking and flying to get to Colorado.


	8. Chapter 8

The next morning, Vlad double checked the supplies, letting the kids sleep a bit longer. Dani was the first one up.

"Dad, do you want me to wake the others?" She asked, floating next to the oldest halfa.

"No, they need as much sleep as they can get. Since you're up already, can you help me for a bit? I want to do one more sweep of the mansion, see if there's anything I missed."

"Of course! Where do you want me to look?"

Vlad smiled at his daughter. "Check the kitchen for canned foods and a can opener if possible, then anything that can be used as weapons. When you're done, if the others are still asleep, you can check the rooms for anything Daniel may have missed."

Dani nodded and flew through the wall. Vlad let his smile fall. He floated over to Danny and placed a paper on his chest.

Vlad made his way to his ruined lab. The room was demolished. He frowned at the mangled remains of the zombie under a large chunk of wall.

He turned away from the body and walked over to the computer wall, or what was left of it. Every screen was either crushed or shattered, the keyboard was gone, along with half the control panel.

Then Vlad looked where he feared the worst, the fridge containing the blood samples. He sighed in relief to find it still closed. Worst case scenario, the samples spilled inside and mixed together, possibly able to spread to Vlad if he came into contact with it.

Vlad formed a bubble around the fridge out of pink ectoplasm and lifted it off the floor. He glared at it in concentration. The bubble filled with red flames, swallowing the fridge.

He was so focused that he didn't notice Danny land in the room next to him. "What are you doing?"

The bubble flickered when Vlad jumped. He quickly focused back on the bubble and his ecto-fire. "Daniel, please don't do that."

"Why are you burning the samples? Aren't you using those to develop a cure?" Danny floated closer to the bubble and watched the metal of the fridge melt away.

"I was, but the samples were contaminated. The fridge was thrown in the blast and everything inside mixed together. Either the samples are all zombie, or your blood purified it all. Either way the samples are no longer helpful."

Danny floated back over to Vlad. "But why burn them?"

"If your blood did mutate, we don't want it to spread. Imagine zombies with halfa blood. We don't need this plague to get any more difficult than it already is." The ecto-fire broke through the fridge and the halfas listened to the hissing and sizzling of the blood samples.

When the fridge was nothing more than a puddle of molten metal, the halfas flew back to the training room.

Valerie and Jazz were awake, dividing up whatever food Dani managed to find. Vlad glanced at the pile in front of Jazz. "I see you managed to find a can opener." He said with a smile at Dani.

"Most of the drawers were still whole, it was in the one by the pantry." She returned his smile.

"So, how are we dividing these up?" Danny asked as he sat next to Jazz.

Jazz explained who got what food, Danny nodded along. "And I get the can opener because I'm the only one without a ghost powered person to share the bag with if we get split up." She finished.

Vlad had been looking through the food while Jazz spoke. "This looks to be as prepared as we are going to get. I say we head out now, before it gets too late in the day."

Everyone looked at each other, their expressions turned serious. Their silent exchange lasted only a moment before they turned and nodded at Vlad.

Vlad, Jazz, and Valerie all picked up their duffel bags. Dani picked up Valerie and Danny picked up Jazz and they all flew out of the last completely safe place they would see for who knows how long.

DPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDP

 **I'm sorry about the lack of updates. I plan on working on this, but we all know how plans can be lost. Life's a little chaotic right now, so updates may not be regular (I'll try to stay away from the year long gaps from now on). Chapters after this one should be longer again, I don't like going under a thousand words a chapter.**


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